A4
Opinion
wallowa.com
August 30, 2017
Wallowa County Chieftain
Everyone has
a role to play in
housing efforts
It has become abundantly clear over
the past couple of months that housing in
Wallowa County is a topic that impacts the
lives of many residents on a daily basis.
Whether you are on assistance and
looking for Section 8
housing or a middle-
class business
manager seeking an Voice of the Chieftain
affordable home to
rent, prospects are equally bleak.
Although recent discussions have
brought the issue back onto the table, lack
of adequate housing across the board has
been a long-term issue. There’s been a lot of
talking, not that much doing.
Now we are on the cusp of the “doing”
phase this time around. Several groups and
organizations have stepped up and made
commitments. Yeoman work has been done
by Rich Wandschneider and his group, part
of the Brown Bag luncheon series at Josephy
Center. Wallowa County Rotary Club has
stepped into action, as have other groups
and organizations.
Someone once said paying lip service is
the cheapest way to address an issue. But
to move the issue forward requires planting
a seed, then watering it and then harvesting.
It’s a concept people in an agricultural part of
the world understand. No seed, no harvest.
The scope of the housing issue indicates
that there is a role to play for every sector of
our societal fabric. The faith community has a
role to play. The county and cities have roles
to play.
Perhaps most importantly, average
citizens have roles to play. Everyone brings
background and a set of skills to the issue.
The amount of life experience represented in
Wallowa County’s residents is massive.
What is your role in helping solve the
housing crisis in Wallowa County?
To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, it’s time
for all of us to ask what we can do for the
impacted citizens of our county and those
who would gladly live and work here if
housing opportunities were available.
Further, JFK talked about doing things that
were “hard,” because we don’t shrink back
from daunting tasks.
One day, we will all look back at this day
in our history and note with due pride as that
time in space when doing something about
the housing crunch replaced talking about it.
And when the curtain finally opens, the
production that results from all of the players
succeeding in their roles will represent hard
work and solution-based outcomes.
Let’s do this.
EDITORIAL
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Phone: 541-426-4567 • Fax: 541-426-3921
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editor@wallowa.com
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Contents copyright © 2017. All rights reserved.
Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
Volume 134
1 Year
$40.00
$57.00
Back-to-school week always nostalgic
I always wax nostalgic when the first
week of school rolls around. I was one of
those weird children who loved school
and couldn’t wait for the summer to end
so I could get back to stuffing knowledge
into my head.
I grew up in a community much
smaller than Enterprise and with far fewer
(as in none) of the summer “fun” things
to do than are available here. School and
church were the lifeblood of our commu-
nity. Remove one of those, and the situa-
tion turned bleak.
My parents were never as tickled to
see school start in the fall as we children
were because it meant losing their built-in
workforce. By virtue of the fact that no
one else wanted to do it, I became the de
facto operator of the lawn mower. We had
acres of lawn. By the time you finished
in one corner, it was time to start all over
again at the far corner.
To this day, I have an aversion to
lawn-mowing. And weeding the garden.
We also had acres of that. Could there be
anything more boring than hoeing corn?
Last week, I pulled up some of the sup-
ply lists the Wallowa County school dis-
tricts had posted to see if anything had
changed. It hadn’t, really.
There were the ubiquitous cray-
ons, glue, pencils and spiral notebooks. I
noticed the elementary list for Enterprise
also had “crackers large boxes (any vari-
Elk foundation is
missing the boat
I recently received a piece
of mail that has really started
me thinking. It was from the
Rocky Mountain Elk Founda-
tion asking us to fill out a short
survey and, of course, contrib-
ute some money ($35).
The letter stated, “your
opinions will help us know
what’s important to you, and
your donation will help us pro-
tect what’s important to you.”
Really?
Where was the founda-
tion this past winter when
large herds of elk and deer
were starving? Where were
they this winter when herds of
elk were destroying ranchers’
haystacks?
Instead of purchasing pri-
vate property in Wallowa
County, couldn’t a portion of
those funds have been used
to set up feeding stations here
and provide hay to the hungry
elk herds?
As many of you know, my
husband and I dealt with this
extreme problem on a very
personal level. We are still
dealing with the elk herds as
they are currently coming into
our hayfields nightly and feed-
ing here.
Yes, we have hunters here
with ODFW damage tags, but
only three animals have been
taken. Some adjoining land-
owners are hunting, too, but
I really don’t know how suc-
cessful that has been.
We have spent thousands
of dollars preparing out hay-
sheds for the coming winter
and return of the elk herds. I’m
told they will be back now that
they know where the hay is.
I would say, we already
Did anyone
ever actually use
a protractor in
school?
Paul Wahl
ety)” and “Kleenix large box.”
When I was in elementary school, these
were things teachers provided. It was kind
of an unwritten law, I guess. Maybe it was
in their contract.
My fifth-grade teacher always had the
best snacks in her desk and was always
willing to share generously, although eat-
ing in the classroom was mostly forbidden
because it meant additional work for the
janitor.
And the complete ban on gum-chew-
ing was also firmly in place during my for-
mative years. I never did develop a taste
for gum. Maybe that’s why.
Most of today’s supply lists didn’t
include a protractor. Remember those? I
dutifully had one in my backpack every
year but can’t remember once actually
using it.
I noticed the supply list for Wallowa
School District had gone high-tech. You
could locate the list on a website and with
one click, order each of the items online,
pay with a credit card and have them sent
to your home.
If your patience for back-to-school
shopping is short, this was an excellent
solution.
Having had many older brothers and
sisters, I do not recall any of my elemen-
tary years in which I actually had “new”
back-to-school supplies. Everything was
something a brother or sister had used the
previous year, and it seemed to me I was
being short-changed.
One year, I threw a fit demanding
a new 96-crayon box with the built-in
sharpener. Although my parents were not
in the least impressed with my temper tan-
trum, I did get the crayons. I was so proud
of the fact I had Burnt Umber. I used that
crayon up first.
I still like Burnt Umber.
Paste is no longer a requirement either.
That’s probably for the better. As I recall,
we generally ate more of it than we used to
hold things together.
To all of the children, parents, teachers,
administrators and support staff at all of
our schools, we wish you a terrific school
year with many accomplishments.
LETTERS to the EDITOR
have contributed to the elk
foundation and will most
likely continue to for many
years until there are changes in
legislative policy and people
from all sides decide to work
together to resolve this prob-
lem for private landowners.
Pamela Harshfield
Wallowa
Wolves and
cattle: Is there a
compromise?
As a farmer, I sympathize
with the Oregon farmers who
are losing livestock to wolves.
As a wolf advocate, I am
bothered by the lethal removal
of wolves, two at a time, that
is probably neither effective
in stopping predation nor con-
serving wolves.
What to do?
Perhaps there is a piece of
data that might be helpful. In
any given location, what is
happening to the deer when
cattle are dumped on the place
where the wolves raise their
pups?
If deer are forced out by
cattle, then the wolves have no
choice but to feed on cattle to
survive.
What if the deer would
hang around if there are 100
cattle, but not 200? What if we
are putting cattle right on top
of den or rendezvous sites (as
Washington State University
wolf scientist Robert Wielgus
managed to inform us is hap-
pening, despite the appalling
interference of legislators in
university research).
What if certain areas can
etters to the Editor are subject to
editing and should be limited to 275
words. Writers should also include a
phone number with their signature so we
can call to verify identity. The Chieftain
does not run anonymous letters.
L
WAHL TO WALL
only sustain so much grazing
and it is all taken up by cat-
tle? What if there were corri-
dors where there was no graz-
ing allowed?
Some packs don’t kill cat-
tle. Why is that? The assump-
tion is that “wolves develop
a taste for cattle,” but maybe
there is more to it.
Given a choice, wolves pre-
fer their native prey.
Perhaps the land can sup-
port both cattle and wolves
if there is a more careful,
nuanced approach to how and
where and how many cattle are
put on the public land when
wolves are raising their young.
Chris Albert
Lebanon Junction, Kent.
Collaboratives
are not all that
collaborative
Forest Service “collabo-
ratives” do not want to grant
Eastern Oregon residents a
vote at the table.
They want people to “par-
ticipate” but not to ask for a
vote in the process. That’s why
now, finally, when residents
of Grant County ask for vot-
ing status, the Blue Mountains
Forest Partners come out with
defamatory statements of res-
idents being “untrustworthy,”
hoping to marginalize those
trying to participate in a mean-
ingful manner.
My mom had to sit through
a shaming by the Blue Moun-
tains Forest Partners because
she was “untrustworthy,”
because I question the col-
In terms of content, writers should
refrain from personal attacks. It’s accept-
able, however, to attack (or support)
another party’s ideas.
We do not routinely run thank-you
letters, a policy we’ll consider waiving
laboratives and how they use
economic hardship to justify
restricting motorized access to
the mountains of Eastern Ore-
gon. Using “vegetative treat-
ments” to “restore” the forest,
while restricting motorized
access when they help the For-
est Service “develop projects.”
The collaboratives are sup-
posed to be civil and open to
diverse public input, but if that
input does not align with the
collaboratives stated goals,
they become personal, nasty
and petty.
The question is, can we
get logs to the mills without
“rewilding” Eastern Oregon?
We did it for decades and grew
some of the healthiest wildlife
populations around. Unfor-
tunately, the environmental
community turned that on its
head with their litigation strat-
egy, and they now get to drive
their message through these
collaboratives, while exclud-
ing public input of voting
membership.
To paraphrase a collabora-
tive board member “my grand-
mother always told me, you
are the company you keep.”
The other lesson most of us
learned from our grandparents
was “the only thing you have
is your word.”
Unfortunately, collabora-
tive members never learned
that lesson, because every time
they give you “their word,”
they back track.
Eastern Oregonians should
not be shamed upon request-
ing voting member status
to “diverse and inclusive”
groups, but unfortunately
that’s how Eastern Oregon col-
laboratives operate.
John D. George
Bates
only in unusual situations.
You can submit a letter to the Wal-
lowa County Chieftain in person; by
mail to P.O. Box 338, Enterprise, OR
97828; by email to editor@wallowa.
com.